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Hot sales have Detroit automakers shortening summer shutdowns

Back in May, there was speculation that the Detroit Three automakers would maintain or perhaps even extend their traditional summer shutdowns, mostly due to a bitingly cold winter that saw below-freezing temperatures infiltrate the southernmost reaches of the US, putting a chill on auto sales. Now, though, the numbers are in, and thanks to some promising sales figures, it looks like some domestic line workers are going to be working clear through July, in some cases.

This is, as we said, thanks to some positive numbers. Chief among those is the Seasonal Adjusted Annual Rate, which was at an eight-year high of 17 million units. Individual figures were less promising. GM, embroiled in its recall scandal, still saw a one-percent increase while Ford dropped six percent in year-over-year sales. Chrysler was the big winner, though, with a nine-percent jump in June.

As for which factory workers will be burning their summer days indoors, Ford will trim the vacations of the teams at its Chicago and Kansas City, as well as both of its Louisville, KY plants. Those factories cover the Ford Taurus, Explorer, F-Series, Escape and Expedition, as well as their Lincoln counterparts.

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"IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed. Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check." - Mitt Romney November 18, 2008

Not sure where you are going here. Ford did what with "what" bailout? Exactly! Chrysler under Italian management and US tax payer dollars has introduced several new models and has become a global company owned by a non-US company. Can't argue with you about GM - 2014 has been a banner year for them. Recall marketing/sales has been a God-send if their customers survived their products. As for as the great City of Detroit - insurmountable labor, retiree burdens has resulted in leaving Detroit in ruins. 2 out of 3 aint' bad!

Ford would have died along ig GM and Chrysler went belly up. Right wingers can deny it all they want but that's the truth. Yes, GM made horrible products 10 years ago. But they are owning their mistakes and recalling all affected models. Despite all the negative publicity they sales have been up. As far as city of Detroit is concerned, that's result of poor management and corporate greed topped with an incompetent governor like Snyder.

The American automotive industry was in absolute shambles in the early 2000s. GM was running around with 9 divisions either making the same thing over and over again (Trailblazer, Envoy, Rainier, 9-7X, Ascender, Bravada) or investing obscene amounts of money on niche products that didn't sell or ruined GM's image (Chevy SS-R, Hummer H2). Chrysler was being leached to death by Daimler and was making some of the worst cars on the road. Ford was beginning its turnaround with products like the Fusion but had plenty of bad years before that as well (the whole "let's buy a bunch of European brands that we don't know how to manage and completely ignore Lincoln in the process" plan, cost them a fortune). Romney's point was that the American car brands dug themselves into a massive hole over many years and that we should not be rewarding irresponsibility with a free handout. In the end, GM and Chrysler were bailed out enough to tide them over until President Bush was out of office but not enough for them to restructure and get on their feet. They went through bankruptcy anyway and were forced to make drastic changes to their businesses, like what Romney wanted. Thank you for making this political for absolutely no reason. I hope I've cleared this up for you. I'd insert a list of things that Obama has said that are wrong but I don't feel like wasting 30 seconds on that.

No. Romney said that Federal government should not be give money to these automakers and let them get money from banks and other private institutions. At that time, none of the bank or private investor was willing to do that. When Romney talks about bankruptcy, he means shutting down factories, selling assets, laying off people, stealing their retirement funds and hiding all that money in offshore accounts. So don't even try to equate what GM went through with what Romney had intended. If right wingers can politicize a terrorist attack on an embassy or a mass shooting at an elementary school, I sure can make this political.

"Thank you for making this political for absolutely no reason" You cannot mention the domestic automakers' resurgence, without mentioning the Obama administration's role in rescuing them in 2009. This is recent history. Not politics.

You're right. Pushing a pen or tapping on a keyboard isn't hard work. The hard work is in the ideas and decisions communicated by those methods. "Hard work" comes in many forms, but it all comes down to the value of that work.